NEW BRUNSWICK — A two-year study by two hospitals in New Brunswick and Rutgers University on the health needs of residents in Middlesex and Somerset counties found that the main concern of the majority of people surveyed is obesity.

The study, known as The Community Needs Assessment, also found that there is a need for more health care facilities in the suburban towns and medical interpreters (trained in language and culture) who can help the county’s diverse population navigate the system.

The results of the assessment were unveiled this morning at the Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy, which worked with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Saint Peter’s University Hospital for the past two years.

One of the study’s findings was that about two thirds of the adults surveyed are either overweight or obese and only one in four have received any advice about their weight from a health care provider, according to Joel Cantor, director of the center.

Cantor said the study found that 56 percent of the adults have been diagnosed with at least one chronic condition and 31 percent reported being diagnosed with high blood pressure.

“Middlesex and Somerset counties fare better than New Jersey as a whole on a broad range of health and access measures,” Cantor said. “But, there are challenges.”

Lack of health insurance, the language and cultural barriers, and difficulty accessing services for mental health and dental services, were major concerns of those surveyed, he said.

The staffs working on the study contacted 2,100 people by phone, in person and through community and focus groups, officials said.

Officials from both hospitals committed their facilities to addressing all of the concerns found in the assessment, funded through a $249,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Health Initiatives Program.

“It is essential that we implement programs addressing the results of the study,” said Steven Jones, president and chief executive officer of Robert Wood Johnson Health System.

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Mariam Merced, director of community health promotion program at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and one of two authors of the study, said officials from the two hospitals are already working on the steps to implement programs to address the findings.

Ron Rak, president and chief executive officer of the Saint Peter’s Health are System, said he believed the study was “a call for us to work together, for both institutions to work as one.”